Graham Croker
The NSW King’s Cup Men’s Eight, featuring no less than seven representatives from Sydney Uni Boat Club has left Victoria and Western Australia in their wake as they defended their King’s Cup title on Lake Barrington, Tasmania, at the weekend.
Rowing with a fast tail wind, the NSW eight too an early lead and was never challenged by the other four crews to cross the 2000m finishing line in 5min 30.80sec.
Stroked by Terrence Alfred, the NSW crew also included Sydney Uni Boat Club oarsmen Fergus Pragnell, Sam Loch, Nick Hudson, Richard Allsop and Matt Ryan, with coxswain Toby Lister.
NSW began well and established a two-second lead over Victoria by the 500m mark. They extended that by another second at the 1000m buoy and held the margin through the second half of the race. Lister was able to punch the air with joy with four strokes to go.
Ryan, a silver medallist in the men’s four at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, said it was a very satisfying win.
“Victoria has done so well in this event and to be able to go back-to-back over them is awesome,” Ryan said. “We went out pretty hard and had built a good lead up and here we are as champions again.”
A Sydney University-NSWIS crew also won the men’s Under 23 eight. The crew of Ryan Edwards, Will Gilbert, Mitch Estens, Andrew Connolly, Nick Purnell, James Goswell, Al Matthews, Richard Allsop and cox Toby Lister edged out Melbourne University and a Bunbury Composite eight for the title.
In other men’s results, a composite crew for Sydney University (Charles Budd and Ed de Corvalho) and Queensland University won the lightweight quad scull, the Under 23 Coxed Four of Andrew Connolly, Al Matthews, James Goswell, Nick Purnell, Edward Clarke cox) finished second behind Sydney, the composite Sydney University-TIS Under 23 Quad Scull (Robert Lewis- Swan, Hugo Struss, Taylor Wilczynski and Alexander Belonogoff) finished second behind Adelaide Composite, and the Open Coxed Four (Toby Dankbaar, William Buckland, Mitchell Estens, Terrence Alfred, Toby Lister cox finished third behind Mercantile-VIS and Queensland University.
Rowers from the Sydney University Women’s Rowing Club also produced some stunning performances at the Australian championships, highlighted by gold medals to Browen Watson in the lightweight single scull and Sally Kehoe in the single scull.
Watson covered the course in 7:44.21 to edge out Alice McNamara of Victoria and Carly Cottam of Tasmania, while Kehoe finished in 8:25.94 to beat Pippa Savage of Queensland and Anna McRae of South Australia.
Kehoe also teamed with Sarah Cook of the ACT to win the double scull, while Watson was a member of the open eight along with Emma Costello, Aylsa Tremayne, Charlotte Walters, Sarah Cook, Liz Kell, Chloe O’Regan, Sally Kehoe and cox Toby Lister, who finished second behind Melbourne University-VIS.
And a Sydney University-Queensland University crew finished third in the women’s Under 23 quad scull.
Australian Rowing Championships results:
Lake Barrington, Tasmania
Men
Open Eight: 1 NSW (Terrence Alfred, Richard Allsop, Dominic Grimm, Nicholas Hudson, Sam Loch, Dan Noonan, Fergus Pragnell, Matt Ryan, Toby Lister cox) 5:30.80, 2 Victoria 5:35.96, 3 Western Australia 5:39.06.
Under 23 Eight: 1 Sydney University-NSWIS – 6:06.55 (Ryan Edwards, Will Gilbert, Mitch Estens, Andrew Connolly, Nick Purnell, James Goswell, Al Matthews, Richard Allsop, Toby Lister cox), 2 Melbourne University 6:10.64, 3 Bunbury Composite 6:13.94.
Lightweight Quad Scull: 1 Sydney University-University of Queensland (Charles Budd, Ed de Corvalho) 6:44.90, 2 Toowong Composite-QAS 6:50.94.
Under 23 Coxed Four: 1 Sydney (Richard Allsop) 7:19.53, 2 Sydney University (Andrew Connolly, Al Matthews, James Goswell, Nick Purnell, Clarke cox) 7:21.80, 3 Melbourne University 7:22.06.
Under 23 Quad Scull: 1 Adelaide Composite, 2 Sydney University Composite-TIS (Lewis, Swan, Struss, Wilczynski, Belonogoff), 3 Canberra-CLRC-ACTAS
Open Coxed Four: 1 Mercantile-VIS, 2 University of Queensland, 3 Sydney University (Toby Dankbaar, William Buckland, Mitchell Estens, Terrence Alfred, Toby Lister cox).
Women
Lightweight Single Scull: 1 Bronwen Watson (Sydney University) 7:44.21, 2 Alice McNamara (VIC), 3 Carly Cottam (TAS).
Single Scull: 1 Sally Kehoe (Sydney University) 8:25.94, 2 Pippa Savage (Ald), 3 Anna McRae (SA).
Double Scull: 1 Sally Kehoe (Sydney University) Sarah Cook (ACT) 7:27.24, 2 Pippa Savage-Anna McRae, 3 Lisa Szatsznajder-Emma McCarthy.
Open Eight: 1 Melbourne University-VIS 7:38.21, 2 Sydney University (Bronwen Watson, Emma Costello, Aylsa Tremayne, Charlotte Walters, Sarah Cook, Liz Kell, Chloe O’Regan, Sally Kehoe, Toby Lister cox) 7:51.86, 3 Mercantile-UWABC-VIS 7:55.83.
Under 23 Quad Scull: 1 ANA Composite-WAIS, 2 UTS Composite-AIS-VIS, 3 Sydney University-University of Queensland.
Victoria was awarded the Rowing Australia Cup as overall winners of the Interstate Regatta.
